Confessional Theology Flashcards
Why are regeneration and saving faith necessary for the true study of theology? What is the practical importance of these truths for us personally and with respect to our ministries?
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We are spiritually blind. You must be born again if you would be a teacher in Israel. How can you teach something that you don’t believe?
What is the “Reformed Faith?” (Explain as to a new Christian)
Reformed faith is a system of belief and practice that stands on the figures and creed of the Protestant Reformation from the 16th & 17th century. Prominent aspects:
- Absolute sovereignty of God.
- Covenantal doctrine of Scripture.
- Sufficiency of scriptures
- Priesthood of believers
- Grace-centered life of man.
What is “Covenant Theology?”
A system of theology which says that God has sovereignly and graciously established a redemptive relationship of union and communion with His people and their offspring. Covenant theology maintains that God has organized redemptive history in terms of covenants and a promise. This covenant work, from Genesis to Revelation, God uni-fies by the promise that he is redeeming a people for himself as summarized in his promise: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
Why covenant theology is important? (Explain as to a new Christian)
Covenant theology is important because it maintains the unity and continuity of the Old and New Testaments - all of God’s revelation. Covenant theology recognizes God’s sovereign oversight of history as an outworking of his loving grace. (Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration).
What the two principia of Reformed theology? How do they relate to the Reformed system of theology?
principium essendi God as considered as the objective ground of theology, without whom there could be neither divine revelation nor theology
The doctrine of Scripture is the principium cognoscendi there could be no true knowledge of God and therefore no theological system Internum x externum
What is the analogia fidei? What is analogy Scripture?
Analogy fidei: The use of a general sense of the meaning of Scripture, constructed from the clear or unambiguous loci (places)…, as the basis for interpreting unclear or ambiguous texts. It presupposes a sense of the theological meaning of Scripture.
Analogy Scripture: “The interpretation of unclear, difficult, or ambiguous passages of Scripture by comparison with clear and unambiguous passages that refer to the same teaching or event”
Why is divine revelation necessary for the true knowledge of God? Relate this to our creatureliness and to our sinfulness
Because as creatures we are not able to know the Almighty, as Job 11:7 explain and because we are sinner our knowledge is distorted after the fall. Our creatureliness/ Our sinfulness: Acts 17:30-31 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent
Where did the 5 points of Calvinism come from?
The five points stem from the canons adopted by the Synod of Dort in response to the five points of Arminianism. (1618-1619)
What is God?
“God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”—WSC #4
Is God responsible for sin? Did he decree it? Did he permit it?
No.”God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”—
The Scripture justifies God and maintains that in no case can God be considered the author of sin. He is always presented as holy and righteous, far from sin and godlessness. The Bible always blames the sin upon the creature and not upon God.
Yet there is the fact that God has created the world so that sin was possible. We must affirm that God has decreed all things, including sin, and yet he is not the agent in the act of sin. The decree itself is a positive act of God, but the execution of the decree is by permission. Acts 2:23 affirms that the crucifixion took place by the hand of wicked, lawless men. In other words, though it was foreordained by God, sinful men were responsible for the sin itself. Even when we recognize that this is the case, we are still left with the question of why God has ordained that sin should take place in the first place. Ultimately, we have no answer to this question. All that we can say is that it is for the glory of God, but that still does not answer why this is so
